Albert. Wachtel, "Introduction, The First Trinity." The Cracked Lookingglass: James
Joyce and the Nightmare of History. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna UP, 1992. 15-38. Print.
Proposition: Joyces work is more closely related to daily experience than written
history.
Goal: The goal is to show that Dubliners has no factual base but instead contains
accidental occurrences.
Plan: The plan is to offer background information on Joyces life and his works. Then
Wachtel opens the book with a proposition. He provides evidence for his statement and
quotes known people. He then explains the stories from his point of view and inserts
premises throughout the book.
Audience: The audience is anyone who read Dubliners and wants to have a better
understanding of the stories while receiving one persons point of view.
Albert Wachtel believes that Joyces work is more closely related to daily experience
than written history. He believes that Dubliners is full of probable events and
scrupulously uninterpreted accidental occurrences. There are also those few times
where there is factual base in the stories but there is no direct reference. Wachtel agrees
that Joyces stories combine autobiography and fiction. Therefore he refers to them as
fictional histories. He quotes Aristotle by saying that a person of a given kind will
probably, and perhaps even necessarily, further the action of a unified set of
circumstances in specific, causally related and rationally explicable ways, no matter how
unusual the circumstances. He uses this to make his point that Joyces stories are filled
with accidental and irrelevant occurrences. Our opinions, as readers, reveal things about
the events or the characters themselves. Joyces stories leaves readers with so many
questions. The author then explains some symbols involved in each story. Wachtel agrees
that the stories are in fact connected. Death does for Flynn what the adventure stories of
the Wild West did for the narrator of An Encounter: offers an escape. Joyce uses play
on words with paralysis, parallelogram, gnomon, and simony. Wachtel argues that the
first stories are in Dubliners to depict the meanness, entrapment, and blindness of the
protagonists.
Does: Offers background information on Joyces life and his works. Opens the book with
a proposition. Provides evidence for his statement and quotes known people. Explains the
stories from his point of view and inserts premises throughout the book. Provides reasons
for each premise.
Keywords: accident, fact, autobiography, fiction
Fairhall, "The James. Paralyzed City." James Joyce and the Question of History.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. 64-71. Print.
Proposition: Joyce thinks that Dublin is, without question, the center of paralysis.
Goal: The goal is to show that other people do not agree with his statement. He wishes to
show that while Dublin was impoverished, it had its good features too.
Plan: The plan is to quote other critics that think that Joyce only speaks harshly of
Dublin. Then he plans to make a new premise, differing from Joyces premise of a
paralyzed city. Fairhall provides information on Joyces life. He then provides quotes
from people that think that Dublin was a good city.
Audience: The audience is people who read some of Joyces work and is questioning
whether Dublin was as bad as Joyce makes it seem.
Fairhall quotes F.S.L. Lyonss article on Joyces view of Dublin. Lyons believes that
Joyce is unable to see Dublin for anything other than drab, impoverished, servile. Joyce
wrote a letter stating that Dublin is the center of paralysis and 10 years after this letter the
city erupted in revolution. Lyons argues that the problem with Dublin was not paralysis,
like Joyce said, but rather tension. The south of Dublin was prosperous, professional,
governmental. But the north was commercial. While there were slums on both sides of
the river, the ones in the north were more prominent. The streets in the North were
shabby. Joyce was born in the south but moved to the north because of his fathers
affairs. The switch hit him hard because his familiar busy streets got replaced by scruffy
streets. Regardless of having to move to the unpopular north, he still had a strong sense of
nationalism. He was Irish Catholic. He was very affected by the betrayal of Parnell. Joyce
needed to escape everything and so he moved out of Ireland. Fairhall claims that
socialism contributed to the tension that Lyons pointed out. Fairhall quotes a passage
from Joyces Dublin that states that there are multiple Dublins. The author says that the
view of Dublin depends on who is looking at it. To Joyce, it may seem to be the center of
paralysis but to the theatre members, life and excitement could be used to describe the
city.
Does: Fairfield offers a quote from another critic supports his proposition. He offers a
new premise and provides evidence for said premise. He provides background
information and analysis on Joyces life to support premise. He provides quotes from
other critics to support his premise.
Keywords: Dublin, corruption, Joyce, Parnell